Rebecca Masson, chef and owner, Fluff Bake Bar, Houston, Texas
Pastry chef Rebecca Masson says she wants all her cakes to taste like Grandma's, but "on steroids."
Chef Rebecca Masson, center, and her assistant from Fluff Bake Bar work alongside Chef Whitney Otawka, left.Lyric Lewin/CNN
Masson, the owner of Houston's Fluff Bake Bar (314 Gray St, Houston, TX 77002; +713 522 1900), takes a Texas-sized leap of faith to combine seemingly incongruous flavors. Like Button, she chooses a central ingredient and builds on it with seasonal elements.
For this meal, she started with pound cake just like her grandmother used to make for Masson as a child growing up in Wyoming. For her version, Masson added pistachios to the mix, yielding an electric green sponge cake that makes the perfect canvas for a deliciously Instagrammable dessert.
"You can add almost any flavor to pound cake, it goes with so many things," she says. "It helps to start with a familiar base and build on it."
She dressed up the cake with candied pistachios, fennel confit and caramelized white namelaka, a creamy Japanese chocolate sauce formed into lattice-like adornments.
"Everyone loves pound cake. I use it whenever I can," she says. "It's almost like salad in its versatility."